Utah Warriors withdraw with Major League Rugby ahead of 2026 season, suspend operations

HERRIMAN — Utah's top-flight rugby franchise won't be returning after a breakthrough 2025 campaign.

The eighth-year professional Utah Warriors rugby franchise won't return for the 2026 season, the club announced Tuesday morning, after failing to secure additional ownership and funding.

Utah Warriors CEO Kimball Kjar revealed the decision in a letter to fans, a day after informing Major League Rugby of the club's decision while indefinitely suspending first-team rugby operations.

"Up until just days ago, the Utah Warriors were committed and on track to participate in the 2026 Major League Rugby season. Unfortunately, things changed quickly in the past week," said Kjar, adding that all season ticket deposits for the upcoming season would be refunded to the team's fans within the next week.

The withdrawal is the latest gut-punch for American rugby, the country that is scheduled to host the Rugby World Cup in 2031. With the decision, Major League Rugby will be down to just six teams in 2026. Current franchises will operate in California, Seattle, Chicago, Carolina, New England, and Washington, D.C.

The Warriors were one of two original teams (with Seattle) to stay with the league since 2018. But since the New England Free Jacks defeated the Houston SaberCats at Centreville Bank Stadium in Providence, Rhode Island, this past summer, trouble has brewed constantly.

First, the New Orleans franchise — NOLA Gold — announced it was withdrawing from the league after seven years in the league.

A short time later, the two teams in San Diego and Los Angeles opted to merge into a single team, called the California Legion, that would split its home games in San Diego, Los Angeles and Irvine, California.

Miami Sharks uprooted from the league after just two years, and Houston — another one of the original seven franchises in a league that once grew as large as a dozen — withdrew, citing financial hardships and disagreements with the league's front office.

But Utah felt different. The Warriors were built on a foundation of a sport brought to the state by some of the earliest Latter-day Saints pioneers from the Polynesian islands of Tonga and Samoa. From the early days of Iosepa to the youth rugby dynasty led by Larry Gelwix at Highland rugby, the sport had a foothold in the west.

It caused Utah's leadership to proclaim the state as the "epicenter of rugby," and Major League Rugby was — for a time — headquartered in Salt Lake City. Sold-out crowds regularly awaited the team at the club's 5,000-seat home at Zions Bank Stadium, and the club bought office and training space of its own in Draper last May.

Results weren't always consistent. But a renewed investment in the club and a roster overhaul under former coach Greg Cooper led to a franchise-best 11-5 record last year, a Western Conference regular-season title, and a playoff berth for the first time since 2021 before making way for top assistant and former New Zealand Māori All Blacks forward Robbie Abel to be the club's next coach.

"To our sponsors, thank you for supporting this vision of building Utah into North America's epicenter of rugby," Kjar said. "This vision remains and will be carried on by our amazing local rugby community at the youth, high school, collegiate, and club levels, especially Utah Little Rugby and Utah Youth Rugby."

Kjar also hinted that more news about the organization's "support for the game" would come "in the coming days," and urged supporters of the franchise to get behind that forthcoming direction.

"Although this might feel like goodbye, it's really just a shift in our focus," he said.

"That's the thing about Warriors — they never give up," Kjar added. "They keep moving forward. This isn't the end for rugby in Utah, and when that time comes to welcome professional rugby back to our great state, I look forward to standing next to our entire Warriors Nation family to cheer our team, our Warriors."

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